jcbollinger.... Rspec? I have never even heard of that, not even during my Puppet Training (in a classroom). That's interesting.
Jcbollinger, I think your explanation has unclouded my understanding quite a bit - thank you. Also, my shop uses 'puppet agent -t' on the command line when we want to *demand* a system be updated and we know it is a good candidate for being updated; otherwise, we do use something in the crontab to update the system every 15 minutes or something like that. Thank you all, JC, Henrik, and Jeff for trying to explain. I hope not to be so dense when it comes to these questions and concepts, but I am a sysadmin more than a software developer, and Puppet Administration seems to be directly in the sweetspot that I can't quite reach yet. I am getting there, but I must keep asking the community for its help and clarification. *Sometimes, RTFM doesn't work.* Thank you all again. -------------------------- Warron French On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 9:38 AM, jcbollinger <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 7:10:29 PM UTC-6, Warron French wrote: >> >> Can someone please clearly explain why/when to use: >> puppet apply versus Puppet agent? >> > > > Responding to your specific (mis)understandings: > > >> I believe, but I want to be thoroughly corrected, the following: >> 1. puppet apply (with --noop) is for 'smoke' testing a specific >> manifest .PP-file, but >> > > > Not really, unless you ordinarily use 'puppet apply' (*without* --noop) > to build and apply catalogs. > > Your manifests and data need to be present on the host where you build the > catalog, but they do not necessarily need to be present on the node to > which you apply a catalog. If your nodes ordinarily obtain their catalogs > via the agent, then they probably don't have the manifests and data. > Moreover, some aspects of catalog building can produce different results > depending on where they run. > > Additionally, the community's conventional choice for testing Puppet > modules is Rspec. > > > >> 2. puppet apply will apply a single (specified on cli) module in reality; >> but, >> > > > Not necessarily. 'puppet apply' will build a catalog locally, starting > from the manifest file you specify to it, and referencing other manifests > and data as necessary. If successful, it will then apply the catalog to > the node on which it is running. To the best of my knowledge, the only > essential difference between the catalog building process performed by the > master and the one performed by 'puppet apply' is how the starting-point > manifest(s) are chosen. Note also that the manifest you specify to 'apply' > does not have to belong to a module. > > > >> 3. a puppet agent -t searches the deltas of files tracked by the Puppet >> Master and applies all changes for all modules wherever the modules are >> actually appropriate candidates. >> > > > No, I think that's a poor characterization. 'puppet agent' requests that > the master build a catalog for the local node, and then applies that > catalog; together these constitute a "catalog run". Depending on the > options you specify, the agent may do this just once, or it may run as a > daemon, performing catalog runs on a configurable schedule. The second > stage, applying the catalog received from the master, is no different when > performed by the agent than when performed by 'puppet apply'. The first > stage differs mainly in where it is performed. Where a master is in use, it > typically does far more than track files. For its part, the agent has > nothing to do with deciding *what* to apply; its job is to determine *how* > to apply it. > > > Overall, I suspect that your misunderstandings are based, in part, on an > idea that you would routinely have use for both 'puppet agent' and 'puppet > apply'. Typically, however, a Puppet shop will use either one or the > other, not both. > > > John > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Puppet Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/puppet-users/80c5bf43-87bd-4f89-b5a1-8147c4a86a7e%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/puppet-users/80c5bf43-87bd-4f89-b5a1-8147c4a86a7e%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Puppet Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/puppet-users/CAJdJdQmzM8cLx2bpA%3DQeof1bEMKxBi_EQooD8gxkzTBDDF6XCA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
